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The one thing all politicians agree upon

May 18, 2018

The political divide in Delaware today is as wide as it has ever been. Whether it is gun control, parental rights, immigration, education - you name the issue, and you will see that there is very little middle ground left on the political landscape. The parties seem to disagree on everything ... except one thing ... the insatiable desire to spend taxpayers' money.

Very soon you will begin to hear about a significant "budget surplus" in our state. The Democrats will say it is due to our governor's hard work, and the Republicans will say it is because of the Trump economy. They will disagree on how and why this surplus came about - but they will all agree on this one thing: They want to spend it!

Now, this supposed "surplus" is said to be somewhere between $250 million and $280 million. That sounds awesome - no matter what party you belong to - but is it true? Is there really a "surplus"?

Let's say that your family makes $41,000 per year, and at the end of the year you have $2,500 more than what you spent. Congratulations! That's a good year - you have a "surplus!"

But wait - what I forgot to tell you is that during that year you also increased your credit card debt by $2,100. Hmm... OK, so you have this extra $2,500 to spend, but in reality all but $400 of it is borrowed money! You did OK - but you are no financial wizard!

So what do you do with this $2,500? Do you just tell everyone that because of your great planning you are going to spend it on some pet projects that you've been wanting to do? Or do you say to yourself "I should pay back the $2,100 I borrowed this year so I don't have to pay interest on it next year, and then I can make plans on what to do with the $400 I really saved."

That is exactly where our state is - except you have to add five "0's" to the numbers I used.

Our state budget for 2018 is approximately $4,100,000,000 (the $41,000 family income), the projected "surplus" is around $250,000,000 (the $2,500 family surplus), and we borrowed approximately $210,000,000 by way of the Bond Bill (the $2,100 in family credit card debt!) See, it's just like a family budget!

Oh, and by the way, we have been borrowing money every single year to the tune of 5 percent of our budget. Our legislators have managed to spend more than $2 billion over and above what we took in over the years - that's over $2,100 for every single person who lives in Delaware. Thanks a lot, elected officials...

So what is the point of this letter?

I would like to encourage every person who reads this to contact their senator and representative, and tell them to exercise some fiscal discipline by using this year's "surplus" to fund the projects in the Bond Bill and not borrow any money this year! You see, in order for our state to borrow money (Bond Bill), there must be a 75 percent majority vote - not a 50.1 percent majority for a regular bill, or even a 66 percent majority for a constitutional amendment.

It takes a full three-fourths of both the House and the Senate to vote to borrow money (that should tell you how cautious our founding fathers were about borrowing money and paying interest...). Let's see if we can get 26 percent of our elected officials to do the fiscally responsible thing, and stop putting our children further in debt. Now is the time to see if fiscal responsibility is just something they say to get elected or if any of them are actually serious about it.

Bob Mitchell
Greenwood

 

 

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